> As it stands the major Chicago to New York and New York to DC routes are tolls almost the entire way. The nation paid for those routes, and now pays to use th

> As it stands the major Chicago to New York and New York to DC routes are tolls almost the entire way. The nation paid for those routes, and now pays to use them as well. Actually, no, the nation did not pay for those. The NJ, PA, OH, IN, and IL toll roads you're talking about were built with state-issued bonds, not Interstate money, because they're older than the Interstate laws. They got Interstate numbers later, purely as a matter of convenience for travelers trying to get from A to B. The only federally-funded Interstate that I know of that is allowed to charge tolls is the WV Turnpike, and that only because it was so horrifically expensive to build and yet was so valuable to the nation as an artery. The Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike is another such road (I-95 now), but tolls were removed when I-295 bypassing the area was built. There are other state-built toll roads in greater Richmond that continue to be tolled. The Virginia Beach Expressway was tolled until its initial bonds were paid off. On both roads, you can still fairly easily see where the booths were.